May marks Better Hearing & Speech Month, a time to raise awareness about communication disorders, and the role that speech-language pathologists (SLPs) play in providing life-changing treatment.
To celebrate the month and help bring innovative technology into your sessions, we bring you… (drum roll please!)…. our latest list of amazing apps for SLPs! We’ve included some great freebies, along with those SLP apps that, in our opinion, are worth the investment (important to note – these are our unbiased opinions, and we are not compensated for sharing them.)
Cost: FREE
Developer: Outfit7
Operating System: Apple / Android
For those who haven’t met these adorable characters, Ginger and Tom are cats and Pierre is a Parrot. These fun and free apps are great in helping children in speech therapy – with the help of some cute and chatty pals. Players can interact with the characters by poking, tickling and talking to them. The virtual animals repeat back what is said in a silly voice. The apps also allow users to play games, make videos and care for Ginger, Tom and Pierre. Your students will love bathing, dressing and even getting these little friends to use the potty.
Cost: $29.99
Developer: Smarty Ears
Operating System: Apple
Created specifically to help children with apraxia of speech, Apraxia Ville is a unique application with multiple levels, vowel and consonant targets, as well as the ability to create custom words. It is perfect for students who struggle with sound production, and includes video modeling of consonants and vowels, word targets by syllable structure (CV, VC, CVC and CVCV), customization of targets, and progress monitoring. Import players into Apraxia Ville from the Therapy Report Center, or enter them individually on the home screen. Up to four players can be selected, with individual selections for targets in both sound groups and syllable structure allowing multiple students to work on different targets in the same session.
Cost: $4.99
Developer: Erik X. Raj
Operating System: Apple
Like them or not, selfies aren’t going anywhere! Wacky Selfie creator, speech-language pathologist Erik X. Raj, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, puts selfies to good use in your therapy space with a comprehensive collection of over 450 hilarious sound-specific stickers to transform regular selfies into wacky ones. Designed for use by speech-language pathologists, this photo-based app is great for students who exhibit difficulty producing the following speech sounds: S, Z, R, L, S/R/L Blends, SH, CH, and TH. It’s a great aid in the remediation of articulation impairments, as well as auditory and language difficulties. This fun and silly app is guaranteed to spice up your therapy sessions by getting kids to talk about their funny selfies!
Cost: FREE
Developer: Lipa Learning
Operating System: Apple / Android / Microsoft
Great for learning/reinforcing basic concepts, Lipa Eggs provides a fun and creative outlet that students will love. Users get to paint eggs and then watch what hatches. Experiment with the colors and talk about what happens. Invent new shapes and work on naming and identifying them. Watch as your speech and language therapy students enjoy winning additional funky special features along the way.
Cost: $11.99
Developer SuperDuper Publications
Operating System: Apple
This is a great app for teaching students how to correctly ask and answer WHO-WHAT-WHEN-WHERE-WHY questions. It has four entertaining learning games for each set of cards, and includes enhanced data tracking so you can easily keep track of student progress in speech therapy.
Cost: $119.99
Developer: Stage Publishing
Operating System: Apple
You design the lessons: customize speech or text commands, card positions, prompts and prompt fading, target and distractor words, reinforcers, and more. The Pro version lets you upload your own images & customize labels, associated instructions & categories. And you can now create unlimited student users, with stored word lists, settings & reports. This app also comes complete with 600+ Language Builder® images including Animals, Foods, Transportation, Furniture, Clothing, Toys, Everyday Objects, Insects, Sea Life, Musical Instruments, Tools, Body Parts, Safety Sign, Shapes and Colors. Save hundreds on traditional flash cards!
Cost: $14.99
Developer: Seriously Sticky LLC
Operating System: Apple
Try SpeechStickers to playfully motivate students to practice the basic building blocks of speech. This SLP app was designed by a professional speech-language pathologist who specializes in working with children with autism and motor speech disorders such as Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS.) Begin a session by selecting a target sound to practice. The child chooses one of the five character stickers, places it on the screen, and repeats the sound the character makes. You provide feedback and discreetly score the child’s attempt. Play continues until the child has completed a set of stickers, and the child is then rewarded with their choice of an animation. Parents can also use SpeechStickers at home to reinforce and supplement therapy.
Cost: FREE
Developer: Google, Inc.
Operating System: Apple / Android
Though not specifically designed for speech therapy, this creative and empowering app can be a valuable SLP tool under the guidance of a speech-language pathologist. With Toontastic, users can draw, animate, and narrate their own cartoons. Players move characters around on screen while telling their story. Toontastic records voice/ animations to store it on the device as a 3D video. Toontastic is a powerful and playful way to inspire conversation and enhance speech therapy tactics through adventures, breaking news reports, video game designs, family photo albums, and anything else young minds can imagine!
Cost: $29.99
Developer: SLP Tech Tools
Operating System: Apple
Minimal Pairs is a speech therapy app developed by speech-language pathologists to help you target phonological and articulation disorders in children ages pre-K through 6th grade. Using 367 word pairs, students can identify and correct phonological sounds.
Cost: $3.99
Developer: PlayHome Software Ltd.
Operating System: Apple
Here’s another app that, while not specifically designed for speech and language therapy, can deliver many benefits. Known as the original (and best) doll house app, My PlayHome is incredibly interactive, with plenty to explore in the house. Children will enjoy helping their characters eat, sleep, shower, brush their teeth, open closets, and much more. Plus, you can encourage your students to identify familiar household objects and talk about them.
Whether you specialize in articulation, expressive language, receptive language, social skills integration, or any combination, technology is a powerful tool for inspiring progress! Have you used any of these apps in your speech-language pathology classroom? Share your experience below!
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